EMORY HAROLD BENSON
some of my experiences as I lived in Newton. As told to my Grandson,


Blake Eugene Benson, written May 1973. Emory, at this time was 78
years and 11 months of age.
Emory was a Farmer & Carpenter, Self Employed.
I was born 1 June 1894 on a ranch 1 and 1/2 miles south east of the
little town of Newton, Cache County, Utah. I was told that I was not


expected to survive at the time of my birth, but evidently, I made it


OK.
(Grandpa was only 4 pounds at birth and was premature. They wrapped
him in cotton and placed him in a shoe box and put it in the oven to
keep him warm. He grew to be about 6' 6" tall and weighed about 250
pounds).
My earliest recollection of child life, was during the summer that I
was three years old. I remember playing in the grain fields adjacent


to the home and my mother kept track of me by my little red hat. In
the late fall of that year, I remember very vividly my father
butchering a pig, because he used an old colt piston to shoot the
pig. Then when I picked the pistol up, my father took the pistol and


broke it with an ax, saying he wouldn't have it lying around for his
kids to get killed with.
In the fall of 1898, when I was 4 years old, my folks purchased a
home in Newton and moved from the ranch. I remember the trip to
Newton on a hay rack. I was frightened so my father put me in a large


barrel. My early childhood was spent about like any other boy,
mostly climbing trees for birds nests and wading in the ditches and
generaly getting into mischief at times.
I went to visit school one day and the teacher asked, "Do you want to


start?" So I went home and told my mother I had started school. I
was always one grade ahead of all the rest of the students my age.
Some of my teachers were Miss Barker, J.J. Larsen, Ruth Jenkins,
Arthur Cooley (who is Walter Cooley's brother) and J.W. Kirkbride.
As boys in the neighborhood, we liked to play, kick the can, run
sheep run. As we got older we enjoyed horseback riding and baseball
in a vacant lot near anyones home. I guess swimming up the Newton
creek, north in a dammed off hole about 15' X 30', was our favorite
past time. Usually 15 to 20 of us boys were there.
In the spring of the year a bunch of us boys would take an old broom
handle whiddle a sharp point on one end of it and go up in the hills
and dig up
sego lilly bulbs, peal the outer side skin off, and eat them. They
were sweet
and very good.
We always went on an Easter walk with our lunches. When we got
older, a girl would fix a nice lunch and ask a boy to share it with
her. As a gang, we always had fun and a good lunch.
We had two stores in town, Griffins Store, and the Peoples
Mercantile. We also had a confectionary, they sold icecream cones
for 5 cents, candy, and soda water served from a spout, we didn't
have bottles. Our soda water was 5 cents also. There was a black
smith shop, Antone Jensen, from Denmark ran it.
Horse and buggy was a great sport and our means of travel around town


or to Logan. Roads were not like they are today, so when it rained,
we would drive our buggys to Cache Junction, and there board the
train for Logan, our tickets cost 6 bits ($.75). When it snowed, we
would hook the horses to the bob sleigh as a means of travel. If we
wanted to go to Logan, we would drive our sleighs to Cache Junction
and ride the train. Our trips to Logan were few and far between.
My first car was an Oldsmobile, we bought it in 1918 for $1,700.75.
After district school, I spent two years at the Utah State
University, which was then known as the Utah Agricultural College. I


spent most of my young life working on the farm, helping my father.
In the fall, I spent several years working on Jenkins Brothers
threshing machine crew. In those days, we were paid $2.50 a day for
10 hours labor and you earned every bit of it, eating machine dust.
In the spirng, I helped clean town ditches for a little spending
money. For that kind of work, we received $2.00 a day.
In those days, we only had two telephones in Newton. One at the
store, and one at my father's home (The Benson Family Hotel). Radios


had not even been thought of yet. Televisions and automobiles were
to come later. The first radio we used ear plugs to listen to
stations in New York and Canada.
The only recreation we had was a picture show and a dance once a
week. The roads were not improved, so were only useable when dry. I


worked on the
trenches when the water works were first brought into Newton in 1912.


I met my wife, Ella Parker, while attending school in Logan. We
were married in May 1915 and spent all our married life in Newton.
We were the parents of 5 daughters and one son. They are the parents


of 21 children and 21
grandchildren. There has been one death among the grandchildren,
LaWana Bunn age 21. My wife, Ella, passed away in August 1966 after
51 happy years together. During my married life, I worked several
years for the Rail Road at the Round house in Cache Junction. We
worked twelve hours a night and received $.20 (cents) an hour as pay.


In 1924, I went to work in Bear River Canyon on the Cutler Dam as a
carpenter. When the dam was finished, our carpenter gang went to
American Falls, Idaho to help put the high voltage electric line in
between Cutler and American Falls. On our return, I was called back
to Cutler to build a bridge across the Bear River to transport some
large transformers across. I was the only carpenter together with
about 12 laborers that built the bridge.
For years, I did carpentary jobs in Newton, Clarkston and Smithfield
along with running the farm. I decided the two jobs could not be
done together as they should be, so I spent my time on the farm until


about 1962, when I retired to spend all my time with my wife, during
her sickness.

Comments by John R. Benson, a grandson.
In 1983, Emory was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lower right
leg. The lower leg had already started to develop gaingreen and had
to be amputated about the knee. From the Logan Regional hospital,
where the sugery was performed, Grandpa was taken to a nursing home
in Brigham City, Utah to recouperate. After about 9 months, he was
able to be transferred to the Sunshine Terrace Nursing home in Logan,


Utah, where he continued until his death in August 1984.